The Modeling of Two-Phase Turbulence

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract CTS-0108860 R. Lahey and K. Jensen, RPI Two-phase turbulent flow occurs in many industrial processes including nuclear reactors, separation and washing, and many chemical and heat transfer applications. Prediction of this complex flow has been primarily based on extension of two-equation turbulent models developed for single phase turbulent flow. Although the two-equation models are effective for many industrial applications, their validity and accuracy requires more direct simulation and analysis. This proposal is on direct numerical simulation (DNS) of two phase turbulent flow using a combination of finite element method (FEM) and a level set (LS) approach. The flexibility of the FEM to map irregularly shaped interfaces will be used along with the volume-of-fluid (VOF) type approach to track the interface by solving an additional transport equations for the location and shape of the interface. To effectively capture and resolve the interface, particularly during bubble breakup and coalescence, extremely fine and adaptive grid structure is required. To this end, the proposal makes extensive use of the well established adaptive grid refinement algorithms developed at RPI over the years. The success of the proposed approach depends on the accuracy and efficient implementation of the method on massive parallel processing systems.